JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
World Cups mean a whole lot of new infrastructure for a host country. In Mexico City, it's an ambitious new bike lane in one of the city's most important thoroughfares that has gotten the most attention, and it's sex workers who are angry. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Spanish).
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: The sex workers gather on one of the main avenues of Mexico City. Some are in skin-tight spandex, short skirts, dramatic makeup. Most of the older sex workers are in tall heels and long summer dresses.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Yelling in Spanish).
PERALTA: "We are denouncing displacement of our comrades who work on Tlalpan Avenue," one protester says.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Yelling in Spanish).
PERALTA: "What's happening with this bike lane is a social cleansing."
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Yelling in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Yelling in Spanish).
PERALTA: "Who do these corners belong to? The ones who work them," they reply. For the World Cup, the government of Mexico City opened what it called the Great Tenochtitlan Bike Highway, 24 kilometers of bike lanes that run from the center of town all the way to the main World Cup stadium. Elvira Madrid is an activist who runs Brigada Callejera, a collective that helps sex workers.
ELVIRA MADRID: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "The problem," Madrid says, "is that the new bike lane stripped the outermost lane of the street."
MADRID: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Before, the sex workers stood right on the street, and their clients could slow down, they could loop, they could negotiate. Now, in parts of Tlalpan, the sex workers are separated from the street by the bike lane and in some cases even huge concrete planters."
MADRID: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: Madrid says, "their earnings have dropped by 70%." The municipal government did not return our request for comment, but the mayor of Mexico City has said this is a major infrastructure project that connects dozens of communities. To Madrid, this is a city turning its back on a piece of history.
MADRID: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Thirty-seven years ago, as neighbors complained about sex workers in their part of town, the city created a zone on Tlalpan Avenue where prostitution is tolerated. At the time, it was an earthquake-battered, seedy part of town. The sex workers took up residence there, and as the years went by, the area got better, rents went up. The World Cup, says Madrid, is the perfect excuse to turbocharge gentrification. If she were a foreigner, she says, she wouldn't come to the World Cup.
MADRID: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "They're going to be staying in five-star hotels and eat in nice restaurants."
MADRID: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "But you're hurting all of those people who have lost their jobs."
(SOUNDBITE OF COW BELL CLANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Spanish).
PERALTA: The protesters move across the city shouting, "we want a place to live. We don't give a d*** about the World Cup." Sandra Montiel walks under an umbrella. She's 50. She's been a sex worker for 30 years. It's a dangerous job. She survived an acid attack. I ask her if it wouldn't be easier to find clients on the internet. She shrugs.
SANDRA MONTIEL: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "We're used to the streets," she says. "And most of the sex workers are older, so they don't have the skills, nor quite frankly," she says, "the youth to attract clients online. They've defended their block before," she says, "and they're ready to do it again."
MONTIEL: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "The fight continues," she says, "and we will remain on this street." Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADANNA DURU SONG, "POP!") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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